As we all know, recently there has been a multitude of posts regarding both the cost of VIP and the new list limitations. I know I’m going to get slammed with this post but I read an article recently (PC World) which stated that Trakt pays Younify per user for the data that Trakt needs. Although it should have been obvious, this is an expense that I never considered. I knew about server costs, support costs, development costs and other infrastructure costs but I wonder what other PER USER expenses Trakt incurs.
Here’s where I’m going to get in trouble for this post…
Why is there a free tier at all? It seems that there should be a Basic Trakt Tier to recoup direct expenses like these. Maybe $1/mo or $10/yr? If this were implemented the VIP tier could possibly be backed down to the previous $30/yr sub (and maybe a VIP light to increase list limits for $20/yr?).
If VIPs are subsidizing free users which is the reason behind the price increase then yeah just rip the bandaid off and make Trakt a fully paid service. With tiers and regional pricing though.
Assuming Younify is that important and Trakt can’t let it go.
Well, if you are correct, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, that kills my argument! Although with all the hostility these days, I still think the VIPs are subsidizing the free users who believe they are entitled to get the service for free and I’ll stand by my proposed fee structure.
I may have been mistaken about the use of Younify but, if I were running Trakt, I’d possibly have a free tier for watched history/next up, which I feel is the bare essential use of the app and everything else would be in a sub.
Justin may need to confirm (probably won’t be until Monday at least, I just happened to open the forums ) but I’m almost certain that the “pay per user” is based on VIPs who’ve used the automatic tracking, not for all free users too.
That’s not to say that VIP users don’t subsidise free users - essentially you keep Trakt a thing for everyone, but not when it comes to Younify.
Let’s hope the people who replied to this thread (apart from Trakt people) never create an app in their whole life as it will be a complete disaster.
Remove free tiers? Jesus, I have never read any idea as terrible on this forum (and I have read some terrible replies).
I would like to ask you to go to any movie/series on Trakt, literally any, and take a look at the comments. See how many are VIPs and how many are not. From what I saw, approximately 8 out of 10 comments are non-VIP. I think you fail to realize what proportion free users represent. Not only on Trak but on any freemium app that ever existed (percentages are around 90% to 95% of free users). And on an app with a pretty weak community aspect (most episodes have 0 to 10 comments max, and even a movie like Pulp Fiction has less than 100 comments), do you really want to make it even weaker?
But sure, let’s imagine we remove all free users. The user base will lose a huge part of it (if we could know how many free and paid users the app has would be nice). So the “Most popular”, “Most anticipated”, and “Trending now” sections will be losing all of their relevance because… well… no one uses the app anymore except people who pay, who probably represent a very small percentage. Ratings would also go down, so you cannot really know if a movie was good or not, except by looking at IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. You also would’t get any relevant recommendations or social activity because many friends would just… disappear from the app. And let’s not talk about lists… People used to follow many great, interesting and regularly updated lists from free users, which obviously had more than 100 items. You know what happened next… these lists cannot be updated anymore.
One could argue that “I don’t look at comments, I don’t look at most popular, anticipated, trending, I don’t look at ratings or lists and I don’t have friends on Trakt”. Well, that’s just sad.
Would also be great to check your information before posting something, Younify is indeed only used for the streaming scrobbler, so free users have absolutely nothing to do with it.
And I also don’t understand this crusade against free users. Just… scrobble your streaming services or whatever, and let people complain if they want. Especially when the complaints are justified (100 item watchlist is crazy, but not the subject of this thread so I won’t talk about it more).
While I agree partially with what you’re saying, your assumption is based off assuming people using Trakt in the same fashion you do which appears to be using it for a large part to suggest series and for the reviews.
All of that can easily be replaced by getting comments and suggestions from elsewhere. Personally I use Criticker to decide what new series I might like as that takes my ratings and similarities into account.
Free users and their comments on movies or series are for many purposes for me completely irrelevant. That’s not to say they aren’t for others of course, but if only free users rely on using the suggestions and comments, then they aren’t providing the value to the app you perceive.
Without knowing what paying VIPs look for or how they use it makes this discussion a little hard. For me the value is principally in the ease of scrobbling and tracking what’s up next in series I watch.
As far as your comment about the “crusade” I get it, it’s getting old I’m sure reading these type of comments, but as a reasonable person I’m sure you can also appreciate that supporting users of Trakt are also getting tired of the constant crusade for being given something more for free. Especially seeing as so many of the posts became repetitive by a small group of antagonistic users.
Just to clarify though, I can easily see why people are upset over the 100 item list limit as after all I have two lists with well over 600 items on each of them. Obviously the better course of action would have been for people to have been made aware of possible upcoming changes and limits unless a wider support base was built. That didn’t happen. Had it then maybe the doubling of VIP cost might not have been needed either. Although with the revelation of the cost for Younify who knows.
) but I’m almost certain that the “pay per user” is based on VIPs who’ve used the automatic tracking, not for all free users too.